I know by now we’ve had enough of what we put up and prevailed with this past year…

But, (Isn’t there always a but?) We grieved, rejoiced, reshaped worried, became compassionate, donated, aided across windows and doorways, became lonely, became depressed because of our isolation in our little bubble. We learned new protocols, safety rules, we unionized, shared, learned how to cook, paint, bake bread, learned to garden- hoping to grow our own food, enjoyed new music, read those long lost books sitting so pretty on that shelf, organized our homes, embraced our time, learned to value our relationships or damage some despite the pandemic and found out how to live with our children and how many of you became instant teachers to your children?

We cleaned garages, sheds, closets, cleansed and enlightened ourselves with long forgotten pampering, wrote long letters, discovering that cursive was still an art. We worried about our elders, neighbors, friends and family in despair as we tried to adjust to just being home all the time. We saw an uptake on addiction, child abuse, crime, spousal abuse, alcoholism, and anxiety.

We had words that grew different meanings, we learned that some carried heavy percussion, or those that just put a smile on our face momentarily and some added words that were unknown or have new meanings to our vocabulary such as Covid, Zoom, social distancing, masks, isolation, remote learning, oxygen, body bags, tractor trailer refrigerators, front line workers, comfort food and sometimes take-out, pandemic unemployment benefits, housing crisis, “Help Wanted”, food insecurities, solidarity, 6 ft rule, mail-order, store-to-car service, single-serve packaging, Amazon, UPS, FedEx. (Thank You for being there).

We learned that there are severe flaws in public health, military, transportation, infrastructure, food chain, politics and institutional leadership in our government systems. It was necessary to acknowledge there were several bad failures that has affected us immensely…We learned we shouldn’t take our time, health and life for granted. We learned we were like scrambled eggs, and was told how to be, when, with and how many. It was “Act Now or Else” that changed how we live and how we go to work and how we do so. Just then, we realized that this Covid thing wasn’t really a light issue to deal with. It really changed our lives, forever…

So we managed to make it this far. It is hot outside, our seasons are confused here in Maine. I’m going to keep it light this week, to prepare us for picnic time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Recipes:

Olive Salad

Ingredients:

1 c. pitted green olives, preferably Ceerignola or Casteleltrano

roughly chopped

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, roughly chopped

½ cup peeled and roasted red peppers from jar, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp capers, well drained, finely chopped

¼ cup olive oil

2 ½ tbsp. Red wine vinegar

1 tsp. Dried oregano

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper

to taste. Set aside to marinate.

Bright and light and just rich enough to finish off any picnic.
It’s quick and easy with purchased lemon curd. For extra flavor punch, use lime juice curd instead of lemon.

Use disposable drink cups for your picnic or bring out your best ramekin for your dessert at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lemon Mousse with Raspberries

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups lemon curd, purchased or prepared

1 ½ cup heavy cream, whipped until it holds stiff peaks

½ tsp. vanilla

6 oz. Raspberries or more, I’d recommend more. I love raspberries, they’re my favorite.

Directions:

Whisk ¼ of the cream into the lemon curd to lighten it. Fold in

the rest of the cream and vanilla. Transfer mousse to separate

serving dishes, layering mousse and raspberries. Garnish with remaining berries. Cover and chill 2 hours to overnight.

Happy Fooding and Happy post-pandemikin! As usual, I love receiving your notes. scrappychef@yahoo.com. Still in therapy, yeoww! And we have been able to do a soft roll-out on my new project. I’ll fill everybody in next time so we can work out our “bugs” for perfection. As always, it is my pleasure to have you seated at my table. ~And the last words~ Don’t waste your time looking back on what you’ve lost. Move on, for life is not meant to be traveled backwards.” ~Unknown

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